Fourth meeting of the German-Indian Working Group on Vocational Education and Training held in Munich from 10 - 13 October
Maren Verfürth
Translated by: Sarah Zimmer, English Language Service
The fourth meeting of the German-Indian Working Group on Vocational Education and Training was held in Munich from 10 - 13 October 2011. The Indian delegation was headed by the new state secretary in the Ministry of Labour and Employment (MoLE), Mr Mrutyunjay Sarangi, who was accompanied by other high-ranking representatives of the MoLE, the Ministry of Finance, the National Skills Development Corporation (NSDC), the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) and the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII).
Participants of the fourth meeting of the German-Indian Working Group at Munich (©iMOVE)
Cooperation between Germany and India in the vocational training field is developing at a rapid pace. It advanced to a new level when Germany's Federal Minister of Education Schavan signed a Memorandum of Understanding on cooperation in the VET field on 31 May 2011 during German-Indian government consultations in New Delhi. Prior to that, Mr Ramadorai, advisor to India's prime minister in vocational training matters, and State Secretary Schütte agreed in April 2011 that cooperation projects should be incorporated into a 'roadmap' in the future for strategic planning purposes.
The fourth Working Group meeting revolved around compiling the bilateral activities in the joint roadmap. The drafting of the roadmap reflects the Indian partners' wish to define the activities of the German-Indian Working Group in more concrete terms and provide them flanking policy-level support. The content of these activities particularly entails issues such as training for instruction personnel, the establishment of sector skill councils and the development of occupational standards. The aim in this connection was to coordinate and agree on a first draft of the roadmap during the Working Group's meeting in Munich.
The roadmap is a working document which is to be coordinated and fine-tuned during the annual Working Group meetings and supplemented as needed. Further details were clarified during the meeting. Open questions regarding the individual projects in the roadmap were settled during the final session of the Working Group meeting. An official vote on the roadmap was then conducted and it was agreed to meet next year in India for the fifth Working Group meeting.
In addition to the policy sessions which were the focus of the Working Group, the programme was rounded out by information visits to the Federal Employment Agency and the Institute for Employment Research in Nuremberg, and the Städtische Berufschule für elektrische Anlagen und Gebäudetechnik (municipal vocational school for electrical installations and building services engineering), DB Regio, BMW World, and TÜV SÜD Academy in Munich. These visits gave the Indian delegation in-depth insights into various facets of Germany's 'dual' vocational training system (which combines part-time vocational schooling with practical work experience).
Chancellor Angela Merkel's visit to India in 2007 provided the starting point for Germany and India's current collaboration in the area of vocational education and training. During this visit, India's Prime Minister, Mr. Manmohan Singh, asked the German government for assistance with India's efforts to reform its vocational training system. The German-Indian Working Group on Vocational Education and Training was subsequently set up to help the Indian government with the implementation of its National Skill Development Initiative. This initiative aims to provide vocational training for some 500 million people in India by the year 2022. BIBB coordinates the Working Group on behalf of the Federal Ministry of Education and Research. It also makes on-going substantive contributions to the lines of action that have been agreed upon by the Working Group. BIBB with its considerable expertise is considered to be an important partner in the reform of India's vocational training system.
